shield/helmet

My second shield/helmet coin! I was attracted by the beautiful rose on the obverse, together with all the other monograms I wanted to learn more about. In my opinion this coin is in acceptable condition for any collection. The obverse is better in real but the kerykeion in the boss of the shield is not very clear. The reverse has some wide scratches, maybe from cleaning, maybe from usage, I don’t know.

Modern image of a kerykeion

I bought it from a German coindealer who had listed it as a coin of Lysimachos, king of Thrace after the deadth of Alexander the great. Inexperenciend as I was, I didn’t know this was absolutely wrong. It was Dane from Wildwinds.com who pointed it out to me and analysed this coin step by step for me.

Most can be learned from the reverse: the royal title of BA, the kerykeion, a rose and FIΛ (FIL). The royal title needs no further explanation (see my previous post ). The rose is quite simple as well: it’s a clear indication that this coin is from Sardis (a town in Asia-Minor, present Turkey). Not that the rose is the symbol of Sardes (the rose is a symbol for the island of Rhodos) but it’s more likely the symbol of the magistrate. Roses on this type of bronze coins are always indications that is was minted in Sardis. The kerykeion, left of the helmet, is no big surprise too: most coins with a kerykeion on the shield have a kerykeion somewhere on the reverse. The last one is the most difficult: FIΛ.

It’s not hard to imagine that FIΛ refers to one of the many Philips (Philippus). First question that arises: which one ? But, oddly enough, according to Price FIΛ was also used for Alexander the great. As I mentioned before, it was Dane from the website wildwinds.com who dug in his huge library of books about the coinage of the Macedonian empire to help me out. Too make a long story short: nowhere this coin is listed. Nor in Mionnet, nor in BMC, nor in SNG Cop and nor in Gaebler II. Conclusion: I’m the proud owner of an unlisted coin! This is far from “history changing” and not that really special but still I’m proud of it. If it shows one thing: even with thousands of pages describing coins we do not know everything!

After I had bought a Thracian and a Corinth coin (which has changed hands of a few famous coindealers, but that’s another story) I fell in love with this coin. It is not “very fine” or an extreme scarce type, but this coin immediately took my attention. (If you are a passionate collector you must know what I mean.) My fascination for this type of bronze coins of Alexander the great started with this one!

I still like the high-relief shield on the obverse, however it is smaller then most other coins of this type. The condition of the reverse is only “good” to “very good” but you can clearly see the BA below the helmet. In my experience this place is less common because most times it’s B / helmet / A. The term ‘BA’ stands for BASILEUS ALEXANDROU (“of king Alexander”). Strange as it may seem, his successors kept using this term on their own coins long after Alexander’s death.

The goldish color of this coin is typical for bronze and very attractive, in my opinion.